Zendaya’s ‘Spider-Man’ Casting Might Finally Be The Moment We Get Over Colorblind Casting

It came out yesterday that Zendaya, cast in a mystery role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, will be playing Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker’s girlfriend and later wife in the comics. And likely the most telling moment out of it was the overwhelmingly positive response. We may, finally, be past the idea of color-blind casting as “controversy,” at least when it comes to superhero movies.

Zendaya’s casting has quite a bit of precedent. Casting an actor based on skill rather than skin color has been a fairly common thing in comic-book movies, even as far back as 1989 when Billy Dee Williams played the role of Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s Batman. Michael Clarke Duncan took on the Kingpin in 2003’s Daredevil, Idris Elba portrayed Heimdall in the Thor movies, Samuel L. Jackson assumed the role of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Candace Patton and Keiynan Lonsdale were cast as Iris and Wally West in the CW’s Flash series, and Michael B. Jordan played Johnny Storm. And reactions to Zendaya’s casting on Twitter are overwhelmingly positive:

It should be noted that red hair occurs independently of skin color, so all Zendaya needs is a good stylist if red hair is really that important. But then again, it’s worth asking why a character who’s been around for half a century is defined entirely by her hair color.

If this feels tiresomely, annoyingly familiar, it’s because we’ve been here before so often. A tiny subset of self-proclaimed “fans” crops up to gripe whenever non-white actors get cast in a superhero movie. They got so vocal about Michael B. Jordan’s casting as Johnny Storm, he spoke out about it directly. Probably the most blatantly racist objection was when neo-Nazis “boycotted” the first Thor movie over Idris Elba’s casting as Heimdall. To illustrate just how little their boycott mattered, Thor’s two solo movies have made $1.1 billion at the box office.

The objection usually goes that it’s not true to “the spirit of the comics,” but that’s always a somewhat disingenuous argument, especially so in the case of Mary Jane. If the Marvel Cinematic Universe were adhering to the comics, Zendaya would be showing up in an Iron Man movie. Or, quite possibly, playing Iron Man herself. Comic books change characters and their circumstances constantly, often in reaction to fans. Samuel L. Jackson was so popular as Nick Fury that the original version of the character retired, after a fashion, and let his biracial son take the spotlight.

And to be fair, it takes more digging to find negative fan reactions than positive ones. People are overwhelmingly happy to see Zendaya in the role and have been teasing people complaining about a lack of red hair, or just outright ignoring the trolls and celebrating the casting. And really the question is one of talent. What makes Mary Jane a beloved character is her personality, developed over years of writers taking the character on and making her a relatable person. The right actor able to capture that, and that, in the end, is what matters.

Whitewashing and colorblind casting are two different things. Whereas a role goes to a white person because they are white, even though that role is an Asian, Egyptian God or what have you to “appeal to a white/broader audience, colorblind casting is this actress earning the role of Mary Jane when they know racist/ignorant people are going to bitch about it.

You guys are finally ok with colorblind casting that’s great! And yet we’ve all had to be ok with hardly any colors being casted tho for a while now. so glad you’re all ok with colorblind casting now, because as far as I’m concern there’s always been colorblind casting it’s just now the tables have turned. next an Asian woman will play a traditionally white role, that’ll be new.

Aside from great writing and characterization, all I want is red hair. Its as iconic as Spideys costume (in relation). I could care less what the color of her skin, nationality or country of origin is. Just give me the fuckin hair.

While the casting of Zendaya doesn’t bother me, looking at other casting choices for Spider-man:Homecoming is a little suspect. Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson, Bokeem Woodbine as Herman Schultz / Shocker, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds and Laura Harrier as Liz Allan are other incidents where white characters have been changed to other races. Tony Revolori, best known for playing Zero in Grand Budapest Hotel is by far the strangest one since Flash Thompson has always been the prototypical jock bully. The casting of five major and minor characters to people of different ethnicity strikes as purposeful rather than just casting the best actor for the parts.

The casting of a more diverse set of actors is much more reflective of the current state of Queens, so I don’t have a problem with most of the other roles that have been changed. Being irritated that they didn’t cast a redhead for the role of a famous redhead doesn’t make you racist guys. Also, being and showing your irritation doesn’t mean you’re angry about it, up in arms and what not. I was just as irritated by the casting of Dunst and Woodley. See, not angry, irritated. I’d just prefer to see the character who commonly goes by the nickname Red (for much of the 50 years she’s been around) actually be a redhead for once.

uhm i dont know what your smoking but its pretty negative for spidey fans, forced diversity does not work period. make new characters add something to the lore, have they learned nothing from the fantastic four reboot and the flash, fans just want the characters they know and love on screen in faithful recreations, it doesn’t make them racist or wrong, working against your fan base just to show how diverse you are makes zero sense. now you have a bunch of die hards rebelling against the film when they were prepared to support it. all these people coming out for black mary jane PROBABLY will never buy a spiderman book or buy a black mary jane doll or action figure based on the change, its just so frustrating for fans

Kirsten Dunst is awful. She is a terrible actress and she was terrible in spider man. I’m seriously not sure how she even got the role to begin with.
FWIW, Emma Stone as Gwen is the universally accepted “best MCU Spidey girlfriend” so far.
Zendaya, while young, comes off as a very intelligent, graceful person-which are characteristics that we as fans would want MJ to have. Let’s give the kid a chance.

Just to be “that guy,” the Nick Fury in the Ultimates Universe was black (and based on Nick Fury) before he ever appeared in a movie. The movies have taken inspiration from both the mainstream Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. Then, the character was introduced into the mainstream Marvel Universe, but it wasn’t because of “colorblind casting” in the movies – it’s because the movies cast the guy who the interpretation in some comics was already based on to play him.

@Cat McIntyre Around the turn of the century, Marvel introduced their Ultimate universe, an alternate reality of sorts. What happened in the Ultimate universe hit the broad strokes of classic Marvel stories, but the setting was updated & a lot of the details were different. One of those differences was the fact that the Ultimate version of Nick Fury was black. The artist decided to use Sam Jackson as a visual inspiration. In one issue, Ultimate Avengers were talking about who might play them in a movie, and Fury confidently stated that the only choice for him would be Sam Jackson. This all happened well before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a thing.

In 2012, back in the original Marvel reality, the original Nick Fury found out that he had a son who just so happens to look like the Ultimate version of Nick Fury. Because way more people watch Marvel movies than read Marvel comics, they decided to make Nick Fury, Jr. take over his father’s role in SHIELD so that if any of the movie fans happened to pick up a comic they wouldn’t be confused about why Nick Fury was so pale.

The one physical characteristic that was consistent across all versions of Nick Fury was the eye patch. It was his defining trait and made him easily recognizable. Ya know…like Mary Jane’s red hair.

Let’s not make shit like this entirely about comic fanboys (and girls). Does no one remember the shit volcano that erupted when Daniel Craig as cast as James Bond? People flipped the fuck out because he’s blond. Fans are fucking crazy. This is not news.

On topic, in addition to Mary Jane, they also replaced Flash Thompson with a kid who’s literally the opposite of ever attribute Flash has. Pretending that the ability to physically embody a character doesn’t matter if the actor is “talented” enough – and no, nobody associated with this project is talented – just to pat yourself on the back about how “progressive” you are is just ridiculous.

I’m excited for the new Spidey movie after his debut in CW. I don’t even know how this girl is. She’s definitely cute enough, and I’m sure she’ll look great with red hair. MJ’s red hair isn’t the only thing that made that character great. Racists gonna racist, we can only hope their kind fade away into non-existence sooner rather than later.

Let’s just hope for a GOOD Spiderman movie, no matter who’s playing who.

MJ just needs to be a girl that you would have a huge crush on in high school because she’s gorgeous and because she’s nice to you, despite her being way out of your league. Gives a fuck if she has red hair.

Here’s the thing about “colorblind casting.” It’s not. They are casting actors solely because of their color and not because of their talent. It’s not colorblind at all. (Zendaya is breathtakingly beautiful, but she’s a crap actress.) What that means is there is a catalog of crappy “colorblind” characters (I am looking at YOU, Iris on Flash) and it obscures any casting made because someone was awesome for the role (Joe on Flash).

But I can say that Kirsten Dunst was an awful, terrible, crappy MJ and no one cares. But the only reason in the history of the world that someone could say Zendaya is a crappy choice is because they are hate-filled racists who sit around hating and being racist.

Picking a pretty but crappy actress is a bad choice. (Just … everything with Megan Fox.) It doesn’t make it a good choice because the actress is black.

I love that in all the examples of successful “colorblind casting” the article points out, they all happen to be established, talented actors. Of course Idris Elba and Samuel L. Jackson are going to be well received…they’re really, really good at acting.

The surname ‘Watson’ is Anglo-Scottish in origin, and of course red hair is a trait of the Scottish. The character is a descendant of a people who have been historically marginalized by their English oppressors, made to suffer through centuries of financial and social hardships, and, not long ago, were slaughtered for simply being who they were, which *included* the way they looked (ie. their red hair).

Scotland is a country with a proud and rich heritage; people who bled and suffered and died for their independence … and Mary-Jane Watson was their sole female representative in the Marvel universe.

Dismissing someone as ‘just white’ so ‘who cares’ if you eliminate their origin and ethnicity and entire heritage is fine – as long as you’re informed, and you know what you’re talking about.

If The movies were as racially accurate to how the characters really were then the only people of color would be maids and bell boys. Everyone was white in all the comics back then because America was pretty racist when most of these comics came to be (Take a look at some original captain america comics). I think its good that some characters are being recast as diverse in roles where the race of the character means nothing. Its different than white-washing since Hollywood is already over saturated with white actors so showing different races as heroes or major comic characters i think is a great step forward. MJs race means nothing, she just needs to be a super hot popular redhead whos into a particular nerdy kid.